Townships: Lunt

A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1907.

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'Townships: Lunt', in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3, (London, 1907) pp. 75-76. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol3/pp75-76 [accessed 19 April 2024]

LUNT

Lund, 1295; Lont, 1302; Lond, 1349; Lount, 1350; Lunt, 1396; the definite article was prefixed down to the xvii cent.

Lunt is situated in the flattest fen district drained by the River Alt, which also forms its north-eastern boundary. The marshy pastures are liable to floods during winter and in wet seasons. In the southern portion there are cultivated fields where cereals and root-crops thrive in a soil consisting of a mixture of sand and clay. Hedges are scanty and trees few and far between. The geological formation is the same as in Sefton.

It was formerly a hamlet of Sefton, but its separation seems to have been accomplished before 1624. (fn. 1) It has an area of 477 acres, (fn. 2) and the population in 1901 was 80. The road from Sefton to Ince Blundell passes through it.

St. Helen's well, close to Sefton church, is a wishing well; a pin had to be thrown in, and if it could be seen at the bottom of the well the omen was favourable. (fn. 3)

The township is governed by a parish council.

Manorially Lunt seems to have been a member of Sefton, but land in it is on one occasion said to have been held of the lord of Warrington, (fn. 4) suggesting a territorial connexion with the adjoining township of Thornton.

Richard de Molyneux, some time before 1212, gave to Richard Branch and to Robert half a plough-land to be held by knight's service and a rent of 6s. (fn. 5) In 1295 Robert son of Robert Branch granted to Richard de Molyneux an oxgang of land in Lunt. (fn. 6) A family which took surname from the place may have descended from Richard Branch. (fn. 7) Other families named Derleigh (fn. 8) and Fowler (fn. 9) also held land here in the fourteenth century.

Richard Johnson of Lunt was returned among the freeholders in 1600. (fn. 10)

John Lunt as a 'Papist' registered a leasehold estate here in 1717. (fn. 11)

Footnotes

  • 1. Gregson, Fragments, 16.
  • 2. 478, including 3 of inland water; Census Rep. 1901.
  • 3. Caröe and Gordon, Sefton, 54.
  • 4. Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 16, where John Lunt of Lunt is stated to have done homage at Warrington in 1505 for lands in Lunt. This is the only instance of the kind, and may have been an error; the following entry concerns John Lunt of Thornton.
  • 5. Lancs. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), 13. William de Molyneux, son of Adam, granted land on the Lunt Green to Robert son of Richard the clerk of Thornton, at a rent of 3d., about 1260; Croxteth D. Ee. 2.
  • 6. Ibid. X. i, 1.
  • 7. The most prominent member of this family was Richard de Lunt, clerk, who in the fourteenth century was feoffee in numerous instances for local families. In 1337 he granted to his son Henry a messuage and croft in Lunt which he received from Agnes his mother; and twelve years later Henry transferred them to Robert le Breton; ibid. X. iv, 6–7. Robert son of Roger de Lunt granted to his son John in 1309 a house and curtilage in Lunt; ibid. X. iv, 4. Adam, son of Margery de Lunt, in 1302 granted to Peter, son of Richard de Molyneux, all his land in the vill of Sefton, lying in the Lunt, at a rent of 1d. In 1317 Simon son of Adam de Lunt gave a part of his land to his son Robert, a rent of 1d. being payable to the chief lord; and in 1342 Robert son of Robert son of John de Lunt sold land in Lunt, called the Cole Yard, to Richard de Molyneux; ibid. X, i, 9–10. On the other hand Richard de Molyneux in 1336 demised to Margery daughter of Simon de Lunt and Richard her son, for the life of Henry de Lunt, a messuage and curtilage in Sefton in the Lunt; ibid. Ee. 18. The Henry just named was probably the son of Simon, who in 1344 granted to Richard de Molyneux and his heirs all his lands, &c., 'as well in demesne as in reversion, in the vill of Sefton in a certain hamlet called the Lunt'; and four years later Henry son of William son of Simon de Lunt quitclaimed all his interest in these lands; ibid. X. i, 11–12. A William, son of Robert de Lunt, was a contemporary; as also a William, son of Simon de Lunt; ibid. X. i, 8; Y. i, 3.
  • 8. Adam son of Vivian granted his daughter Ameria certain land in Sefton; and Ameria, as widow of William de Liverpool, gave to her daughter Margery on her marriage to William de Derleigh, in 1331, a messuage in the Lunt, with the house built thereon, which she had had from her father; Croxteth D. X. iv, 3, 5. Twenty years later Derleigh granted the same to his daughter Emma, with remainder to William, son of Richard de Molyneux; ibid. X. i, 14. A John de Derleigh occurs in Garston in the time of Edward II.
  • 9. Richard the Fowler in 1340 exchanged his house in the Lunt for land at Lewen Green granted by Richard de Molyneux; ibid. X. i, 7–8. Two other families may be mentioned; Richard son of William Goldenough, in 1397, gave all his lands in the Lunt in the vill of Sefton to Richard de Molyneux; and Henry Robinson and Ellen his wife in 1463 gave their son Thomas lands in the Lunt within the lordship of Sefton; ibid. X. i, 25; iv, 11.
  • 10. Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 241. John Richardson, otherwise Johnson, made a settlement of his lands in Lunt, Sefton, and Ince Blundell in 1593; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 55, m. 215.
  • 11. Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 107; his son James is named.
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